Making an Official Information Act request

We will acknowledge your request when we receive it and we will action it (or notify you of an extension) within 20 working days.

Please note some requests may attract a cost due to the amount of work required to process them. You will be informed of this charge before we proceed and asked if you would like to carry on with your request.

Witholding an information request

Information will be made available unless there is a good reason to withhold it. The Official Information Act sets out a number of reasons for which information may be withheld. These reasons include preservation of personal privacy and protection of information which has been received in confidence.

However, even where there is a good reason for withholding it, information will still be released if there are overriding considerations which mean it is in the public interest to release it.

Find a published Official Information Act response

Southern DHB, like other agencies across the state sector, supports the open disclosure of information to assist the public’s understanding of how we are delivering publicly-funded healthcare.

This includes the proactive publication of anonymised Official Information Act responses on our website from 10 working days after they have been released.

Southern DHB began publishing Official Information Act responses online from 2019. Click to see a list of OIA responses

This list will continue to grow over time, forming a helpful reference point for commonly sought health sector data.

Before making a request under the Official Information Act, check to see whether the information you are interested in is already publicly available.